There are a lot of pain meds you can take while nursing with no need to pump and dump. Same with drinking. You can have a beer or 2 right after you pump/nurse with no need to waste your precious resource.

I have one glass of champagne in the hospital! :) I am not a big drinker but will have one drink on occasion while breastfeeding. I either pump and dump or drink right after a feeding so that several hours will pass by before I nurse again. You can also buy test strips to test your breast milk to see there is any alcohol in it.

It took me a few months to really feel like having a drink. And then, it took me like three hours to drink half a glass of wine. If I took anything more than teeny sips, I felt like it was going straight to my head.